Chapter 433: Flamboyant king 4

The emergency klaxons died abruptly, leaving behind a silence that felt more ominous than the alarms themselves. Noah stood in the facility’s main corridor, watching through the reinforced viewports as hundreds of dark figures approached through the water outside. Their movements were coordinated, predatory, and far too organized for comfort.

"Contact in thirty seconds," Theron reported, his voice tight with stress.

Noah glanced at the assembled team—his friends preparing for what they believed would be a rescue mission turned last stand. Time to end the charade.

"The king reached out to Lucy while we were still on Raiju Prime," Noah said quietly, not taking his eyes off the approaching army. "They planned this whole thing together."

Kelvin’s head snapped around. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"The kidnapping was fake." Noah stepped away from the viewport, facing his team. "Aurelius was never taken."

Sophie’s eyes narrowed. "Noah..."

"My dear friends," King Aurelius interjected, moving to stand beside Noah. "The deception was necessary. I am indeed next in line for collection, but I chose to force the confrontation rather than wait for it."

Uncle Dom was staring at his nephew. "You knew about this too?"

"We all knew," Lucas said quietly. "Noah, Lucy, and me. The king contacted me and we came up with the plan together,"

Kelvin stared at them. "So the distress call, the tracking signal, this entire facility—"

"Bait," Diana finished, understanding dawning in her voice. "You used their own intelligence network against them."

Aurelius nodded. "My father killed himself rather than become the Eighth’s tool. But the debt remained. Instead of letting them take me on their terms, I decided to draw them into an engagement we could win."

"Everyone else needed to believe it was real," Noah continued. "Your reactions, your urgency—that’s what sold it to whoever’s been feeding information to the Eighth."

Through the viewports, the approaching figures were close enough now to make out details. Dark tactical gear, coordinated movement patterns, and the distinctive infinity symbols marking each chest plate.

"You could have told us," Sophie said, hurt evident in her voice.

"The fewer people who knew, the better the deception worked," Lucy replied.

Outside, the army had reached the facility’s perimeter. Over a thousand figures in perfect formation, each one moving through the water with inhuman precision.

Then they simply popped out of existence like soap bubbles.

One moment, the ocean teemed with approaching hostiles. The next, empty water stretched in every direction as if the entire force had been nothing more than an illusion.

"Where—" Theron began, but shadows were already pooling in the corners of the corridor.

The darkness moved wrong. These weren’t natural shadows—they gathered with purpose, flowing across surfaces like spilled ink before rising into three-dimensional forms. The first figure stepped out of shadow near the main junction, their form solidifying as they emerged from what should have been empty space.

More materialized throughout the corridor, the entire army manifesting inside the facility as if walls meant nothing to them. Each figure wore gear that seemed to absorb light, their infinity symbols glowing against the darkness of their uniforms.

Then the first wave moved.

They didn’t walk through doors or break through walls. They stepped out of shadows, blinked across gaps, crawled from inky pools that shouldn’t have existed. Blades of crystallized darkness sprouted from their hands.

"Positions!" Aurelius roared.

The corridor erupted into chaos.

Three shadows lunged for Noah immediately.

[VOID BLINK ACTIVATED]

He vanished in a streak of purple static, reappearing behind the leftmost attacker. His enhanced fist drove into the man’s spine, sending him tumbling forward like a ragdoll. Another slashed at his throat—Noah ducked, drove an elbow up under the jaw, and followed with a sweeping kick that cracked armor and ribs alike.

The third phased into shadow to escape. Noah’s fingers crackled violet.

[VOID BARRAGE ACTIVATED]

Ten darts of condensed void ripped from his hand like gunfire. They pierced the figure mid-phase, disrupting the shadow-state. The body snapped back into reality, convulsed, then hit the floor limp.

Two more blinked from the ceiling above, blades angled for his skull. Noah pivoted—

[VOID BLINK ACTIVATED]

—appeared behind them, hands gripping both heads.

[ENTROPY TOUCH ACTIVATED]

Purple decay spread across their helmets like frost. The crystal blades clattered as both shadows collapsed into brittle husks.

Noah exhaled hard, scanning for the next threat. Their powers were wrong. They folded and blinked just like him, but twisted, noisy, unstable. Almost like void—yet not

Lucas was already lightning incarnate. He blurred through the corridor faster than the eye could follow, arcs snapping with each step. One shadow raised a spear—Lucas struck first, lightning-wrapped palm slamming into his chest. Energy detonated through the armor, sending him cartwheeling into a wall.

Another tried a rear ambush. Lucas twisted, lightning snapping down his leg. His kick caught the attacker square on the side, discharging raw current that locked every muscle. The figure stiffened, eyes wide behind the mask, then toppled stiff as stone.

Lucy streaked past, a storm unto herself. Her body glimmered with blue-white arcs as she vaulted off walls, rebounding like a pinball. She carved a path of ruin—palms firing short-range bursts that disoriented, heels striking with thunderclaps. She and Lucas passed each other in motion, their twin strikes syncing like choreography.

"Try to keep up, brother!" she called mid-spin.

"Already ahead of you!" Lucas shot back, snapping another foe into a twitching heap.

Aurelius was the storm’s heart.

One shadow tried to bind him with tendrils. He simply pressed a palm to his own chest.

Boom.

A combustion wave erupted outward, incinerating the tendrils and hurling enemies back. He was a blur of kicks and spins, flames lacing every strike. He caught one soldier’s arm, twisted, then pressed his palm into the chestplate.

Whump.

Combustion launched the soldier down the corridor like a cannonball. Aurelius didn’t even watch him crash—he was already pivoting, sweeping a leg wreathed in fire through another’s ribs.

"More! You’ll need more than this!" he bellowed, spinning into a flaming axe kick that left a scorch mark on the steel floor.

Diana stood like a wall, shadows sliding around her but never through. One blinked into her zone and froze mid-step, caught between momentum and nothingness. He twitched helplessly, half-phased into shadow.

Kelvin grinned, plasma cannons spooling. "Hold ’em steady for me,"

Twin beams erupted, punching through the trapped shadow’s chest like paper. Kelvin swung the cannons wide, firing again and again, carving burning trails through those foolish enough to rush Diana’s field.

Sophie danced among them, plasma blades carving arcs of white fire. One shadow lunged, blade extended—she parried, twisted, and disarmed in one fluid motion. Her other blade spun low, slicing the weapon apart before it touched her.

Another came from behind—Lyra dropped from the ceiling in beast form, spider-monkey claws tearing across the attacker’s armor, tossing him aside with bone-snapping force. Her screech echoed through the hall as she bounded for the next foe.

The Ares Queens tore through foot soldiers with regal brutality. Lyanna heated armor until it sagged molten. Sera’s staff crackled, releasing localized bursts of nuclear fire that disintegrated shadows in seconds. Thessa’s hammer spun in deadly arcs, strikes resonating with thermal shockwaves that hurled attackers in pieces.

Their army fought tooth and claw alongside them, weapons sparking against shadow-forged blades. For every Ares soldier that fell, three shadows followed.

Still, the enemy pressed hard. They blinked from floor to ceiling, weaving in and out of combat. Their barriers soaked strikes, their projectiles pinned soldiers into corners. It was a war of attrition—but Noah’s side was cutting them down faster.

Until the five marked elites moved.

The lead figure bore five diagonal slashes beside the infinity symbol. This was the same one that had spoken on behalf of the eight earlier. They raised one hand, and a sphere of writhing shadow shot toward an Ares soldier. The darkness wrapped around the man like hungry tentacles. He screamed once—a sound of pure terror—then both he and the shadow vanished completely, leaving only empty air.

"Erasure effect?!" Noah muttered, recognizing abilities that worked like twisted versions of his own void manipulation.

More elite figures emerged through the facility’s walls—one simply walked through solid matter as if it were mist, another seemed to fold space around themselves to cross impossible distances in single steps. Each bore different markings: two slashes, four slashes, symbols Noah couldn’t identify.

One raised a hand. Half a squad of Ares soldiers were yanked screaming into shadow, their weapons clattering uselessly to the ground. Another flicked their wrist—time seemed to stutter around them, every step distorted.

They advanced like phantoms, cleaving a path toward Aurelius.

"Those are different," Noah muttered, watching the insignias slash-marked beside their infinity symbols. The air warped around them. Soldiers didn’t last more than a second when they crossed paths.

Lucas blinked beside him, lightning sparking across bruised arms. "They’re headed for the king."

"Then let’s meet them halfway."

The battle grew fiercer. Noah void-blinked across the field, intercepting one elite’s advance with a barrage of violet bolts. The shadow twisted space itself to evade, but Noah tracked, fists moving faster than the eye. Their clash erupted in shockwaves of void and shadow grinding against one another.

Lucas intercepted another, the corridor strobing with arcs. Lucy joined him, their combined storm forcing the elite to step back, their movements ragged but relentless.

"Yes!!! Come at me! It wouldn’t be flamboyant if the king went down without a proper fight!!"

Aurelius roared in laughter as two of the elites closed in. He dodged one’s strike with a flamboyant spin, flames trailing behind like a dancer’s ribbon. His counterstrike was a palm pressed casually to the elite’s chest—sending him cartwheeling down the hall in a trail of fire. The other managed to score a slash across Aurelius’s ribs, but he only laughed, flames sealing the wound instantly.

Diana expanded her field, freezing a teleport attempt mid-act. The elite trapped inside snarled, form jerking violently. Kelvin stepped in, cannons firing. The shot lit the corridor brighter than lightning, the impact rattling steel plates.

The corridor was ruin, bodies of shadows dissolving into smoke. The floor shook with every clash. Still, the five pressed on, one carving down soldiers like wheat. Their focus was Aurelius.

He stood tall, chest scorched, grinning ear to ear. "Come and I’ll make your exits swift!"

One elite flickered forward, blade raised for his throat. Another bound his legs in dark chains. A third folded the air around him, making even his vision blur.

Noah blurred forward, intercepting, void energy wrapping around his arm as he was ready to hit a Null strike. Lucas and Lucy followed like twin storms. Diana anchored the field, freezing the battlefield’s chaos into something manageable.

But Aurelius raised a single hand. His voice cut through the din.

"Enough. You want me alive. I want my wives alive. Push too hard here, and you’ll lose everything you came for."

A pause, long and suffocating. Then he smiled, sharp, theatrical, the kind of smile that belonged on a stage.

"So. Let’s make it simple." He tapped his chest. "Wherever I go—the five of you follow. Where the five of you go, I go. That is the condition. Flamboyant, is it not?"

The elites stiffened. A glance passed between them—wary, silent, but not dissenting.

The king inclined his head, satisfaction glinting in his eyes. "I take your silence as a deal. My people will stand down." He turned toward Noah, grin widening. "Now... shall we keep the next part private?"

*PING*

> Domain Transport : Extension

Condition Update: "Where the User goes, the Five shall follow. Where the Five go, the User shall follow."

This binding clause was established at initiation of the Oath Contract.

✅ Validation: User’s compliance confirmed.

✅ Target(s) acceptance detected.

Result: Domain Transport activated with forced synchronization.

Location shift locked: All parties will be transported as one.

’So it worked...’ he thought staring at the notification.

Noah’s lips curved into a slow, deliberate smile. His eyes flicked to the system window only he could see.

[System Notice: Condition Fulfilled.]

[Domain Transport – Extension available.]

[Activation requires verbal command.]

A dark purple light began to crackle faintly around his outline, subtle at first, almost imperceptible.

He turned his head toward the five, voice steady, calm — far too calm for the chaos still hanging in the air.

"Domain Transport: Extension."

The words slid from his mouth like a death sentence.

At once, violet energy surged, latching onto his body, then snapping outward to coil around the king and the five elites. A vortex began tearing itself open, swallowing them in hungry spirals of light.

Gasps rang across the chaotic corridor, but Noah didn’t flinch. His smile only deepened as the energy tightened its grip.

The king, caught in the pull, threw his head back and laughed. He turned just enough to face his wives, winking through the distortion. "Where I go, they go."

The last image the wives saw before the portal devoured them all was Noah, smiling that same unsettling smile, the glow of violet light painting his face like a mask.